Neighborhood Family Practice to open health clinic in Tremont
by Nicole McGee

(Plain Press, September 2004) Plans are being made for Neighborhood Family Practice (NFP), a Federally Qualified Community Health Center on Cleveland ’s West Side , to begin offering health care services in Tremont. NFP is planning to use the former Tremont Health Center site on Professor Street to deliver comprehensive family medical care services.

Tremont Health Center , a city-administered health clinic that offered basic primary care for families for many years, was closed last year due to cuts in the City of Cleveland ’s Budget. Neighborhood Family Practice began looking at the empty space in Tremont in the spring of this year and is working on raising enough money to begin offering health care services there in January, 2005. The move would be an expansion of the NFP’s full-service medical services currently provided at 3569 Ridge Road . NFP has served the West Side for over 20 years and currently has six family doctors and three nurse practitioners, as well as nursing and other support.

Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman said, “I think its absolutely exciting that we are looking at a past that had a half efficient clinic that had to close and now we’ll be ramping up to use that clinic for a community space that will serve this community fully, with incredible partners. Neighborhood Family Practice and Cleveland Department of Public Health have been phenomenally collaborative. In a day when most of what you hear about health care is negative, this is great news.”

About reopening health care services in the building beside Scoops Ice Cream Shop, Scoops owner Maryanne Ludwig, added, “It breaks my heart to see the number of people who come to that clinic now and see the building closed. We welcome Neighborhood Family Practice as a good neighbor and we look forward to their opening because our community desperately needs health care. NFP is committed to doing evening hours, which is good. It will be a change for this community that I think will work out for the best.“

Jean Therrien, Director of Neighborhood Family Practice, has worked with the City Health Department to complete renovation that will allow for the windows in the front of the building to be opened up. Aside from that, she feels the building is ready to start seeing patients again.

Therrien adds, “Neighborhood Family Practice is very excited about expanding our services to another area of the West Side . We will offer family medical care to all residents of the neighborhood and hope to work closely with the community in Tremont. We are moving some of our experienced staff to the new location. As a Federally Qualified Health Center we can offer many services that the City could not, such as access to discounted prescription drugs and many other services.“

Therrien further described Neighborhood Family Practice’s services as follows:

• Patients are treated regardless of their ability to pay.

• Neighborhood Family Practice uses a sliding fee scale.

• In their current location, NFP services almost 9,000 patients a year.

• All staff at the Tremont site will be bilingual to better serve Spanish-speaking patients.

• Staff work to help patients get specialty referrals and obtain medication at a discount.

• All levels of payment are welcomed: Medicare, Medicaid, most health insurance, including many HMOs, and the uninsured.

• Services include physical exams, well child visits including immunizations, chronic disease management, pregnancy care, family planning and same day appointments for illness.